This invention relates to a folding electronic stringed instrument, such as an electronic guitar, and, more particularly, to a folding, electronic, stringed instrument having an overall length that is significantly shorter than that of a conventional stringed instrument but, that, nevertheless, preserves the fret spacings that are disposed across the neck portion of the stringed instrument at intervals corresponding to fret or note spacings of the conventional stringed instrument.
Stringed instruments, such as guitars, banjos, violins, fiddles, cellos, violas, basses, and the like, produce sound when at least one string is bowed, plucked, picked, strummed, or activated in some way, so as to displace and release the string, causing it to vibrate. By controlling the effective vibrating length of the manipulated string by shortening them with fingers on finger boards or fret boards, one can obtain a desired frequency or pitch. The combination of activated strings at desired frequencies creates the music we love.
A myriad of various stringed instruments in a multitude of forms has been producing music back into dim history, gradually evolving to the present form. For example, FIG. 1 shows an elevation view of a conventional modern 6 string guitar 10. The guitar 10 includes a neck 12 with a fret board 9 having frets 11. A thin walled body 14, and a head 16 are placed at opposite ends of the neck 12 with pegs 17 for tightening strings. A plurality of strings 15 are tightly strung at various tensions above the fret board 17, between the pegs 17 of head 16 over a nut 13 and a bridge stop assembly 18 of the body 14. The bridge stop assembly has a strap 19 and string tie holes at 21 to transfer vibration to the top plate 23 of body 14.
Typically, to provide or play different notes or chords at various pitches (frequencies), one hand (or a hand-held device such as a pick or bow) of the musician picks, plucks, strums or draws a bow along at least one string 15 proximate to the body 14 of the stringed instrument 10 to activate it while the musician's other hand varies the vibrating length of the string(s) 15 being bowed, picked, plucked or strummed by stopping the strings at one or more frets 11a-11n. The vibrating length of a string 15 is thus reduced to the length of the string between the raised fret 11a-11n that the string is stopped against and the bridge stop 18 of the stringed instrument 10.
The raised frets 11a-11n, typically, are metal strips that are disposed transversely across the fret board 9 of neck 12 at precisely calculated distances from the nut 13. The frets 11 divide the neck 12 into fixed segments that are related to the musical framework of the present “equal tempered” scales. Each fret 11 spacing represents a semitone or half note (C to C# for example), wherein twelve semitones make up an octave. Necessarily, the distance between adjacent frets 11 making up the fret board on the neck 12 of a guitar 10 reduce exponentially in keeping with the exponential relationship of notes in modern scales A-G. The twelfth fret is one half the distance between nut and bridge, the fifth fret is one quarter that distance, etc.
Over the centuries, whereas the shape and form of stringed instruments have been and still are the subject of art, style, and whimsy, many of the functional aspects of the instrument have been, to a large degree, standardized. For example, in the mid- to late-19th Century, master craftsman Antonio de Torres is credited with crafting guitars having a scale length of 650 millimeters (about 25.6 inches). “Scale length” refers to the effective vibrating length of an instrument string and is measured from the fret board side of the nut 13 to the body side of the bridge stop 18. This scale length, since, has been almost universally adopted for acoustic guitars, both classical and country. Indeed, in the present age, most acoustic guitars are manufactured with a scale length between about 25.5 and about 26 inches, while bass (electric) guitars are manufactured with a scale length of about 34 inches.
According to basic musical theory, the ratio of the distances between consecutive frets (D1/D2), such as fret 11a and fret 11b in FIG. 2, to the bridge stop 18 is equal to 21/12, or approximately equal to 1.069463. Hence, the distance between one fret and the next on up the board, Dn to Dn+1, is 1/1.069463 times the distance, Dn−1 to Dn, between that fret and the next lower fret closer to the nut.
Consequently, the distances between consecutive frets, such as between fret 11a and fret 11b, between fret 11b and fret 11c, and so forth, on the fret board 9 are standardized for all acoustic guitars having a scale length of about 25.6 inches. In actual measurement, the distance between fret 11a and fret 11b on a conventional acoustic guitar is approximately 1.44 inches, the distance between fret 11b and fret 11c is approximately 1.36 inches, and so forth.
As a result, musicians who have developed a feel for the fret board 9 and the fret spacing (Df) of a conventional acoustical guitar are accustomed to the pre-determined fret locations associated with a 25.6 inch scale length. This poses problems when trying to reduce the size of the stringed instrument to make a small travel instrument. Musicians do not want to compromise their sense of spacing gained over thousands of hours of practice.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,791,022 to Green provides a stringed musical instrument that can be contracted into a smaller volume for ease of transport and storage. According to the teachings of Green, however, the instrument retains its standard neck length and body size and shape. U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,157 to Strobel provides a portable, travel, standard scale length guitar that includes standard sized body and neck portions that are releasably attached and detached. In both instances, however, the size of the re-assembled stringed instrument is substantially the same size as a conventional, standard scale length guitar. Also the effort to assemble and disassemble is a disincentive to use and only when disassembled is the size and volume of the stringed instrument reduced.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a portable, electronic stringed instrument, such as an electronic guitar, that is substantially reduced in size and volume from a conventional, standard scale length guitar when both in a folded and an unfolded state but that provides standard fret spacing on the neck of the stringed instrument while creating true, in-tune notes.